Archangels are the second-lowest rank of angel in the Christian hierarchy of angels, put forward by Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite in the 5th or 6th century in his book De Coelesti Hierarchia. However, they are the highest rank to interact directly with humans, seraphim and the like remaining close to God.
Metatron, or Matatron, is an angel in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Metatron is mentioned three times in the Talmud, in a few brief passages in the Aggadah, the Targum, and in mystical Kabbalistic texts within Rabbinic literature. The figure forms one of the traces for the presence of dualist proclivities in the otherwise monotheistic visions of both the Tanakh and later Christian doctrine. In Rabbinic literature, he is sometimes portrayed as serving as the celestial scribe. The name Metatron is not mentioned in the Torah or the Bible, and how the name originated is a matter of debate. In Islamic tradition, he is also known as Mīṭaṭrūn, the angel of the veil.
Samael is an archangel in Talmudic and post-Talmudic tradition; a figure who is the accuser or adversary, seducer, and destroying angel.
Azrael is the canonical angel of death in Islam and appears in the apocryphal text Apocalypse of Peter.
Fallen angels are angels who were expelled from Heaven. The literal term "fallen angel" does not appear in any Abrahamic religious texts, but is used to describe angels cast out of heaven or angels who sinned. Such angels often tempt humans to sin.
In Christian angelology, thrones are a class of angels. This is based on an interpretation of Colossians 1:16. According to 1 Peter 3:21–22, Christ had gone to Heaven and "angels and authorities and powers" had been made subject to him.
Apocalyptic literature is a genre of prophetical writing that developed in post-Exilic Jewish culture and was popular among millennialist early Christians. Apocalypse is a Greek word meaning "revelation", "an unveiling or unfolding of things not previously known and which could not be known apart from the unveiling".
The Life of Adam and Eve, also known in its Greek version as the Apocalypse of Moses, is a Jewish apocryphal group of writings. It recounts the lives of Adam and Eve from after their expulsion from the Garden of Eden to their deaths. It provides more detail about the Fall of Man, including Eve's version of the story. Satan explains that he rebelled when God commanded him to bow down to Adam. After Adam dies, he and all his descendants are promised a resurrection.
The Israʾ and Miʿraj are the two parts of a Night Journey that Muslims believe the Islamic prophet Muhammad took during a single night around the year AD 621. Within Islam, the majority of Islamic scholars claim that the journey was both a physical and spiritual one. Islamic tradition believes a brief mention of the story is found in the 17th surah (chapter) of the Quran, called al-Isra', while details of the story are found in the hadith.
In the Book of Ezekiel in the Hebrew Bible, New Jerusalem is Ezekiel's prophetic vision of a city centered on the rebuilt Holy Temple, to be established in Jerusalem, which would be the capital of the Messianic Kingdom, the meeting place of the twelve tribes of Israel, during the Messianic era. The prophecy is recorded by Ezekiel as having been received on Yom Kippur of the year 3372 of the Hebrew calendar.
The Book of Moses, dictated by Joseph Smith, is part of the scriptural canon for some denominations in the Latter Day Saint movement. The book begins with the "Visions of Moses", a prologue to the story of the creation and the fall of man, and continues with material corresponding to the Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible's (JST) first six chapters of the Book of Genesis, interrupted by two chapters of "extracts from the prophecy of Enoch".
The Bosom of Abraham refers to the place of comfort in the biblical Sheol where the righteous dead await Judgment Day.
The Apocalypse of Paul is a fourth-century non-canonical apocalypse and part of the New Testament apocrypha. The full original Greek version of the Apocalypse of Paul is lost, although fragmentary versions still exist. Using later versions and translations, the text has been reconstructed, notably from Latin and Syriac translations of the work.
The Second Book of Enoch is a pseudepigraphic text in the apocalyptic genre. It describes the ascent of the patriarch Enoch, ancestor of Noah, through ten heavens of an Earth-centered cosmos. The Slavonic edition and translation of 2 Enoch is of Christian origin in the 8th century but is based on an earlier work. 2 Enoch is distinct from the Book of Enoch, known as 1 Enoch, and there is also an unrelated 3 Enoch, although none of the three books are considered canonical scripture by the majority of Jewish or Christian bodies. The numbering of these texts has been applied by scholars to distinguish each from the others.
Adam is the name given in Genesis 1–5 to the first human. Adam is the first human-being aware of God, and features as such in various belief systems.
2 Baruch is a Jewish apocryphal text thought to have been written in the late 1st century CE or early 2nd century CE, after the destruction of the Temple in CE 70. It is attributed to the biblical figure Baruch ben Neriah and so is associated with the Old Testament, but not regarded as scripture by Jews or by most Christian groups. It is included in some editions of the Peshitta, and is part of the Bible in the Syriac Orthodox tradition. It has 87 sections (chapters).
In mythological or religious cosmology, the seven heavens refer to seven levels or divisions of the Heavens. The concept, also found in the ancient Mesopotamian religions, can be found in Judaism and Islam. The Christian Bible does not mention seven levels of heaven. Some of these traditions, including Jainism, also have a concept of seven earths or seven underworlds both with the metaphysical realms of deities and with observed celestial bodies such as the classical planets and fixed stars.
In Jewish cosmology, Shamayim is the dwelling place of God and other heavenly beings according to the Hebrew Bible. It is one of three components of the biblical cosmology. In Judaism specifically, There are two other realms, being Eretz (Earth), home of the living, and sheol, the realm of the dead—including, according to post–Hebrew Bible literature, the abode of the righteous dead.
2 Corinthians 12 is the twelfth chapter of the Second Epistle to the Corinthians in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. It is authored by Paul the Apostle and Timothy in Macedonia in 55–56 CE.
Chalkydri are mythical creatures mentioned in the apocryphal Second Book of Enoch from the 1st century CE, often seen as an angelic species. In the narrative, chalkydri dwell near the Sun and ran its course around the Earth with it bringing heat and dew to the Earth. The chalkydri and phoenixes are described as creatures 900 measures in size with the head of a crocodile and the feet and tail like that of a lion, each having twelve wings, and are empurpled like the color of the rainbow. Both the chalkydri and phoenixes are referred to as "flying elements of the Sun" in the Second Book of Enoch. At sunrise, all the chalkydri break into song with their counterparts, alerting the birds of the world for a new day to rejoice.
